Biographical Sketch

General Ransom Noble

Among the families of note in the Champlain valley is that of the Nobles of Essex.

The honorable and distinguished business careers of Belden and Harmon Noble are yet familiar to a large number of our readers.

Their father, Gen Ransom Noble, whose portrait is published above, was born in New Milford, Conn., in 1778, of an honored English ancestry, and settled in Essex in the year 1800. His parents had suffered financial misfortune, so that he was compelled to begin life as most successful men have done, at the bottom of the ladder. Having learned a trade, that of shoemaker, he brought with him his shoemaker's bench and tools, and little else. He located on the same premises, in what is now Essex village. He soon after opened a small store, in connection with his shop, and from that small beginning grew the extensive mercantile business of the Nobles in after years.

But a larger field was opening for him, more in keeping with his great business capacities. He purchased an immense tract of the most valuable pine lands in what is now the town of Lewis, a step that laid the foundation of a large fortune, and a very extensive business in lumber, leather, charcoal iron [sic], etc.

General Nobles' name will ever remain conspicuous in the history of Essex county and particularly in the town of Essex, where his life-work was done.